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"You could always have a train of your own, choo choo."

"You know, just because you need to have a string of meaningless, empty hook-ups to fill the void of your ex being a giant, cheating whore, doesn't mean everyone needs to keep track."

"Woah, woah, woah, that's cruel, man."

I stopped and winced. “Sorry."

"That's alright," he said, slapping my arm a little harder than normal. "I know your daddy used to beat the shit out of you. There was bound to be some brain damage somewhere."

I eyed him, now knowing he hadn't taken the slightest offense at what I said. "I know theMarineisn't talking aboutbrain damage. You've got to have some just to sign up, let alone make it through Basic."

"True true, which is exactly why I would be the expert on it," he said with a shrug. "And I'm not going to betoooffended by what you said. You could pull women with those looks and your dangerous aura, but you completely tanked your charisma, and most women probably think you're a serial killer in the making."

"The last girl said I came off like an asshole who beats his wife and makes his buddies lie for him so she never feels safe leaving."

"God, that's right. What a bitch."

"Yeah, and wrong. Especially the part about my buddies lying for me. You'd never lie for me about something like that."

"Damn right. Women need to be treated right."

"I go back to the constantly moving train of women through your apartment."

"Hey, I get plenty of returners. I make sure those women are well taken care of. I make sure their legs are still shaking the next morning when I give them breakfast and offer to pay for their ride home."

"A slutty gentleman."

"What can I say? I'm a giver."

I snorted. “Tell yourself whatever it takes to get you through the night."

The thing was, I didn't need him to argue his point or insist on it, I believed him. At his most basic, Kayden was a kind and generous soul, and it didn't take much imagination to picture him being willing to make sure his partners were well cared for before they left his apartment. It was in his nature to make sure someone was happy if he felt he was responsible for that happiness.

Not that I had any proof, I’d never been around when he had sex as far as I knew. There was just something...uncomfortableabout being around people having sex. Even if they were polite and kept the noise down and didn’t announce what they were doing, the knowledge sat like a rock in my stomach. It wasn't something I’d ever shared, but I suspected Kayden had figured that out on his own. Another thing he was good at was figuring people out and dealing with them, which I generally let him do because I was too big and too 'scary looking' for most people to want to open up to or relax around.

It wasn't like I could blame people. I had known as a teen that I’d suffer from the unfortunate fate of looking like my father as I grew older, and it had come true with every passing year. Like him, I was a large man in every sense of the word, a face that was commonly regarded as 'hard' and 'mean', and while my dark hair didn't come into the equation, I had eyes so dark that in direct sunlight, they looked black. Add in my deep voice and the fact that I wasn't that great at softer emotions, and people generally gave me a wide berth.

Not all people, of course, but Kayden had been right that there were women out there drawn to people who gave off the feeling I did. Which, of course, made me wary of being with them because all I could see in them was my mother, who had taken my father's abuse over the years without a peep. I may not have been the nicest guy, but I sure as shit didn't want to repeat history, or draw women who might unconsciously seek that very thing. I'd seen that happen all too often in my time on the force, and there was a reason I loathed being called out to a domestic.

"The deal was lunch," I told Kayden, shaking off my thoughts before they grew darker. All too often, my brain betrayed me like that, and if I wasn't careful, I’d end up caught up in thoughts that grew increasingly bleaker. In a lot of ways, as much as Kayden's sunny and goofy disposition got on my nerves, it was usually him or at least his presence that made sure I didn't sink too far.

"It is not lunchtime, that was three hours of chewing out ago," he said with a chuckle, checking his phone and tapping furiously. He lived on his phone when he wasn't forced to focus on the job, but at the same time, he was on that thing when we were stuck in the patrol car together. Whereas I treated my phone as a nuisance that I couldn't wait to get away from most days.

"Speaking of, and you're still buying me food by the way, what the hell did the chief have to say to you? He had you in there for a minute."

"Oh. Giving me hell too."

"For what?"

"You."

"Me? What the hell?"

"See, he seems to be still suffering from the delusion that I'm going to keep you on a short leash when you decide to take off like an eighties hero cop."

"Why?"

"Because denial isn't just a river in Egypt."